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My preemie is breastfeeding-how do I stop pumping?

Hello! My baby was born 5.5 weeks premature, so we spent the past 3.5 weeks practicing with him at the breast and supplementing with expressed breast milk. The past week, he has completely made the transition to breast and no longer takes the supplementary bottles. He is gaining weight and has a stool & wet diaper with almost every feeding (about 10 a day).

I am now ready to move myself from pumping, but have a few questions with the transition. First, when he was taking a supplementary bottle the schedule was more regular (often me waking him to feed) and I was feeding every 3 hours and pumping for 10 min after each feeding (8 times a day). Now that he's initiating the feedings they are more frequent and I really don't want to "up" the amount I'm pumping. Should I still be pumping with every feeding or is there another schedule that would work? Second, how long should I be pumping? Can I back off a minute each day or could I go quicker without getting engorged? Thank you in advance for your advice

Re: My preemie is breastfeeding-how do I stop pumping?

When I was supplementing by pumping after every feeding and then stopped with supplements at 4 weeks because my baby was getting what she needed from the breast, I quit pumping cold turkey (on advice of IBCLC). And I had no problems with engorgement. But if you are worried about being engorged, you could go more slowly by pumping after every other feeding for a couple of days, then every 3rd, etc. Or, you could just stop pumping and see if you feel uncomfortable and if you do, then pump for a few minutes for comfort.

Re: My preemie is breastfeeding-how do I stop pumping?

Thank you so much for your answer! I tried to go between feedings without pumping. My son typically only drinks from one side at a feeding, so the side he didn't use was leaking by the time I got to the next round. It didn't bother him and he drank, so I think I'll keep trying--SO ready to be done washing pump parts in the middle of the night :-)

Re: My preemie is breastfeeding-how do I stop pumping?

I say see how you feel. If you find yourself uncomfortable then pump just a bit to relieve the pressure. But I will say that a preemie mom who responds well to a pump often finds they have over supply after baby starts nursing directly. So just be careful not to maintain a supply you don't need.